WikiLeaks: The NSA Has Been Recording Phone Calls In Afghanistan

When The Intercept unveiled an alleged National Security Agency program that has been recording every cell phone call in two countries, it focused its reporting on the Bahamas and omitted the name of the other country over fears of increased violence. On Friday, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange decided to reveal the identity of the unnamed country: Afghanistan.

"Although, for reasons of source protection we cannot disclose how, WikiLeaks has confirmed that the identity of victim state is Afghanistan," Assange wrote in a blog post Friday. He justified the decision by saying censorship denies a country's population to "seek an effective remedy, whether in international courts, or elsewhere." In addition, he noted that contrary to the Obama administration's insistence that the release of WikiLeaks’s diplomatic cables could endanger lives, "[t]o this day we are not aware of any evidence provided by any government agency that any of our eight million publications have resulted in harm to life."